This 5-Year-Old Girl With Autism Creates The Most Magical Art

Iris Grace is 5 years old. She was diagnosed with autism in 2011. Her parents sought out therapists and, in doing so, discovered that she has a particular talent—perhaps a passion—for painting. As her mother writes on her website,

“We have been encouraging Iris to paint to help with speech therapy, joint attention and turn taking. Then we realised that she is actually really talented and has an incredible concentration span of around 2 hours each time she paints. I make up some cups of very watery paints, she chooses which one she would like to use and gets me to make more when she needs it and she mixes her own colours from mug to mug. Her autism has created a style of painting which I have never seen in a child of her age, she has an understanding of colours and how they interact with each other. She beams with excitement and joy when I get out the paints, it lifts her mood everytime. She has found a way of expressing herself that is so beautiful, so we wanted to share it and thereby raise awareness of her condition, which is currently affecting around 100,000 children in the UK and these numbers are rising.”

Since then, her painting has attracted attention around the world.